PROGRAM STRUCTURE

The undergraduate program is a 4-year program. Each year of the program is designed to meet different objectives. The first year aims to provide an introduction to the areas of planning, design and architecture. Year two builds on the introductory knowledge acquired in the first year and begins to specialise more in planning itself by introducing the key building blocks of planning. The third year provides the opportunity to reflect on the learning across the program to date and allows students to start a specialism within a specific sub-field of planning. Fourth year allows further development of specialism and profession related studies in city and regional planning.

Each year the degree consists of a number of individual compulsory and elective courses. The balance of compulsory and optional courses varies from year to year. A total of 162 credits is required for a successful completion of the program. These courses are offered in three streams, with the aim to integrate theory with practice. The Understanding Cities and Urban Change stream equips students with a multi-faceted approach to the study of historical and contemporary urban trends by offering courses that provide a detailed understanding of the nature of the social, economic, political and planning processes that shape cities and regions.

The Urban Studio stream emphasises the importance of hands-on project work and allows students to put into practice knowledge gained in the other streams through urban planning, urban design, architecture and urban conservation related project work. Project work in each of the eight semestres is accompanied by a diversity of other courses that equip students with the various techniques and methods required to successfully addressing the project work.

The Managing Urban Change and Planning Cities stream equips students with the various ways in which planning interventions can improve the quality of cities and spaces. A series of courses introduce the core practical disciplines of planning, followed by more specialist courses related with planning.

Our undergraduate curriculum is designed to establish integrative project work. There are two ways that our curriculum tries to achieve this:

Designing planning studios oriented to solve the most pressing issues and problems faced by local municipalities and communities and respond to the most critical issues facing their cities and spaces. For a portfolio of our planning and design studios see link.

Facilitating the collaboration of interdisciplinary teams of students from architecture and city and regional planning on projects. Three of our eight urban studios are run jointly by the departments of city and regional planning and architecture. These are AR 101 Introduction to Basic Design, AR 102 Introduction to Architectural Design and CP 401 Urban Design studios.

Focusing on case-study and field-based and action oriented teaching and learning. There are three ways that our curriculum tries to achieve this:

Communicating and cooperating with planning actors and gaining insights into the professional lives of planning professionals is an important part of our undergraduate curricula. To achieve this, our curriculum offers an internship in a public planning institution, municipality or in a design and planning office.

Focusing on case-study and field-based and action oriented teaching and learning. There are three ways that our curriculum tries to achieve this:

Urban planning field courses: Our curriculum offers an on site summer course required for undergraduate students who succeeded their second years. It is a prerequisite course of the third year Planning and Design Studio, where students develop strategies for the future development of the city. The field course aims to enable students to acquire transferable knowledge and skills such as data collection and analysis; preparing and writing professional reports; and preparing and using graphics for effective presentations. see the blog of Zonguldak field course undertaken in 2013.

Field trips: Our Department offers an optional field trip to one or more cities in Turkey to study the history of cities and the contemporary challenges that they face. Past field trips involved visits to Kütahya, Eskişehir, Kapadokya, Fethiye, Bergama, Foça.

Mobile workshops: Our curriculum builds on the unique opportunity of being located in one of the major metropolitan regions of Turkey to study the complexities of contemporary urban and regional development and change, and draws on Izmir to offer a multifaceted approach to the study of these changes. This done through a series of mobile workshops that are undertaken throughout the academic year.

Communicating and cooperating with planning actors and gaining insights into the professional lives of planning professionals is an important part of our undergraduate curricula. To achieve this, our curriculum offers an internship in a public planning institution, municipality or in a design and planning office.